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Viewpoint: Room for herons and bikes

by Betty Zaikow With logging in Powell River Recreation Complex park area last summer, residents of Powell River lost a beautiful tract of rainforest right here in the city.

by Betty Zaikow With logging in Powell River Recreation Complex park area last summer, residents of Powell River lost a beautiful tract of rainforest right here in the city. To City of Powell River’s credit, logging was halted in time to allow nesting Great Blue Herons peace and quiet to raise their young. One of the nests produced two fledglings, but the other nest had no viable offspring.

The question is what to do with the land now. Members of Malaspina Group of the Sierra Club of Canada feel strongly that the complex park area must be replanted to protect the herons. We were present when the logging was done, and we were the ones who spotted the herons and their nests. Our group has asked city council and staff that best practices management guidelines be followed to restore this nesting site. These guidelines are to plant mature trees for 60 metres from the nest site and replant a buffer zone for 200 metres.

Great Blue Herons are a blue-listed species, considered vulnerable because human activities are resulting in the loss of suitable nesting areas and disturbance to birds during their breeding season. Studies conducted between 1969 and 2000 indicate that the species is declining at a rate of 9.4 per cent per year. Observations indicate few herons now breed on the Sunshine Coast although they were numerous in the 1980s. Great Blue Herons are protected under the BC Wildlife Act, Section 34, as well as the Federal Species at Risk Act.

One proposal for this logged site is for a skills bike park. Sierra Malaspina is very supportive of recreation and bike skills for youth but any disturbance, even walking, when herons are nesting is considered “molestation of wildlife” if that activity causes birds to abandon their nest, and is subject to a fine. However, next to the skateboard park there are about three acres of rubble, material that was excavated from the recreation complex decades ago. This soil is of such poor quality it grows mainly invasive species such as Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberries. This area may be the perfect site for a bike park.

For the area around the heron nest site, we feel strongly that restoration and replanting is the way to go. The soil is very rich in nutrients and had ferns growing that were six feet tall. This area provided many berries—salal, huckleberries, thimbleberries, salmonberries, and elderberries—that served as food for many migratory birds. Powell River Community Forest is willing to cover the cost to replant and our members are prepared to plant vegetation. The alder stumps left in the clear-cut are now sprouting. Instead of spending $35,000 to remove this vegetation, we should use this money to build a bike skills park for youth next to the skateboard park.

Our city has signed onto the Community Charter and the province’s Climate Action Charter, thereby committing to being carbon neutral by 2012. Working together, we can have both a bike park and a lush forest. And if all goes well, we may see four or six healthy heron babies this summer instead of two.

Betty Zaikow is chair of Malaspina Group of the Sierra Club of Canada.